Squash and Stretch – The First Principle | Principles Of Animation
SQUASH AND STRETCH – In this topic, we will now talk about the first principle in the 12 principles of animation, the squash and stretch.
The 12 principles were introduced by Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas, both of which are Disney animators who wrote this in their book called The Illusion of Life: Disney.
The first principle, the squash and stretch, or S&S, according to AnimationMentor, refers to the application of change of shape to give the feeling of flexibility and life in an animated object or animation.
As mentioned before, it is also in order to add weight to the drawn objects.
The best example of the squash and stretch is the bouncing ball. The “stretching” part is when the ball is falling, while the “squashing” part is when the ball is in contact with the ground.
Here is an example of a bouncing ball without S&S.
Notice that without it, the ball feels solid or rigid. Now here is the bouncing ball with the S&S:
Notice that it becomes more flexible and fluid. Aside from adding flexibility and life to the object, the S&S principle can also show the audience the material an object is made of.
In the case of the example above, a ball without S&S can be rigid or hard like ping pong balls or bowling balls. On the other hand, a ball with and S&S can be akin to a rubber ball.
Here is a simplified video of the first principle, again by Alan Becker, the creator of the famous “Animator vs Animation” series.